Tag: WordPress

I received a call last night from a client who’s developing a website for a product launch, so I can’t start the day with my current fiction and nonfiction books as I usually do. I had to start work on the website content, because it’s a rush job.

I read all the material he sent me. Then I created lists of interview questions. Julia will call the company to line up some chats for me with their subject matter experts (SMEs.) I hope the chats will be later today, but somehow I doubt it. It’s Friday, and it’s very short notice. Not to worry, I can do some research on my own. I’ll need to look at competing products and the marketplace, so that will keep me going for a while.

I meant to work on the novella last night, because I didn’t get to it yesterday, but I had the coaching call, which took longer than expected. MUST get to fiction today…

Breakfast for Honey, and for me, while reading email. Then answering email, and giving feedback. I’ve got several students’ short stories to read, but I’ll save those until the weekend, when I have more time to think.

WordPress 4: looks great

When I checked my blogs this morning, I noticed that WordPress 4.0 has been released. Excellent… I’ve updated the blogs, but haven’t had a chance to check out the new options yet. TNW has an article reviewing 4.

The updated WordPress editor means less scrolling: excellent. I do most of my writing in WordPress. Well, I use a Markdown editor to write drafts, then I post the HTML into the WordPress editor, but one way or another I spend a lot of time scrolling.

After that, I set a reminder to make sure that I WALK today. I need to get back to daily walks. I spend far too much time sitting. As a reward for that, hummingbird cake at lunch. :-)

More email, and a post about our new “Leap” workshops for the freelance writing blog.

Then it’s off for a walk…

UGH! Rain. And it’s cold. So I weasel out of walking and set a reminder to do some yoga and a session on the rowing machine tonight.

Finishing up the week’s projects

I’ve made a list of projects which are almost ready to be sent to clients, so I devote the rest of the morning to that.

Julia and I head for our weekly lunch. We missed out on it last week, and I can hear a BIG slice of hummingbird cake calling my name…

Back to the office. It’s time to return phone calls, and wrap up the week. I do a quick review of the week’s projects, and adjust our schedules for next week.

No more tech aggravations, I hope

I’ve got to keep an eye on my data usage with the hotspot — I’ve used 1.5 GB in a day and a half; that means I’ve got 2.5 GB left before I need to recharge.

And… YAY! Cable Internet is back. Bless you, Telstra.

The technician suggested I turn the cable modem on occasionally to see whether the cable has been fixed, and it appears it has… a miracle.

However, that was a real lesson to me: keep the hotspot charged. Usually when I go out, I use others’ networks: clients’, the library’s, etc. From now on, I’ll take my little hotspot with me. That will keep the SIM active, so that it doesn’t die. It’ll save unexpected journeys to get another one, and it gives me peace of mind too.

I feel like dancing around the room… Happiness is a good Internet connection. :-)

Research for the client’s new website

As expected, Julia couldn’t get any interviews with SMEs today. Onward to research the client’s competitors, and make notes.

Evernote’s Adonit Jot Script stylus, or Livescribe Sky?

Last night I was making some notes in Notability on my iPad, and trying to get a fine line. Not possible, really. I’ve been eyeing the Adonit Jot Script stylus, but can’t justify it as a business expense. I may treat myself to one for Christmas. It looks amazing, but so does Livescribe’s Sky pen. I’ve got the Livescribe Echo, but the Sky pen pushes notes directly to Evernote.

(Sigh…) OK, when I start researching purchases, I know I’ve lost my focus. Time to finish up for the day.

Daily and weekly reviews are done, and I know what I need to do on the weekend. So that’s it for today.

Is content creation wearing you down? Blogs are voracious. You need to feed the beast constantly. Luckily there are tools which can help, especially if you’re a WordPress blogger. Here are my four essential “content” plugins.

A word to the wise: add plugins one at a time, and don’t add too many. Delete any plugins you’re not using.

1. (free) Editorial Calendar: Know What You’re Publishing and When.

It’s Friday afternoon. You’re finishing up the week’s work. Suddenly you realize… you haven’t blogged this week. There’s nothing worse than realizing you’ve got to post something to your blog within the next hour.

WordPress Editorial Calendar saves your sanity. You’ll know exactly what you’re publishing, and when – no more last-minute panics. I love that I can see my draft posts all in one place.

2. (free) WordPress SEO by Yoast: It’s a Built-in Content Checklist.

The basics of search engine optimization (SEO) are easy enough. However, keeping them in mind when you’re fiddling around with headlines, graphics and fact checking is hard. WordPress SEO by Yoast ensures that you don’t forget optimization.

It functions as an easy checklist. You can see what a post is missing at a glance. You can even choose to hide posts and pages from the search engines, if you wish.

3. (free) Related Posts by Zemanta: the Easy Way to Add Related Posts and Images.

Call me shallow, but I like Related Posts by Zemanta because it makes your “related posts” look pretty. I’ve tried lots of related post plugins; Zemanta’s gets the most clickthroughs. You can see it on my Just Write a Book Blog, in the image above.

4. (free) Edit Flow: Easier Collaboration With WordPress.

If you’re working on a blog with others, corralling content is frustrating, to say the least. Edit Flow makes it easy. Not only do you get a content calendar, you also get custom statuses. As content moves through the editorial process, you can change statuses with just a couple of clicks. Users can not only pitch content, but can also see which posts are in progress, and which are ready for editorial review.

So there you have it. My essential WordPress content creation plugins. If you need WordPress to do something for you, chances are that someone, somewhere has created a plugin to do it. Have fun with WordPress. :-)

Writing can be hard if you’re not in the mood. Great writing apps can make it easier, especially those which allow you to create a distraction-free writing environment. I’ve explored many of these apps over the years; these three are currently my favorites.

I’ve scored the apps out of a possible 5; my opinion, based on how I write, your mileage will vary.

1. Byword (Mac, iOS)

Distraction-free score – 5.

Byword is an excellent all-in-one distraction-free writing environment with an added benefit: one-click publishing to Evernote, as well as to WordPress, Tumblr and Scriptogram blogs.

Please be aware that blog publishing requires the Premium version; it’s an in-app purchase which enables Premium on all your devices.

That said, I rarely use the blog publishing option to publish directly to a blog. Byword gives you a choice of RTF and Markdown formats. I write in Markdown, then “publish” to Evernote.

If I’m writing a blog post, I copy the HTML to the clipboard so that I can paste it into WordPress. Once the text is in the WordPress editor, I SEO the post via the Yoast plugin. I’ve found that if I don’t add the meta data immediately, I procrastinate on doing it later.

2. Write.app (Web, free)

Write.app

Distraction-free score – 4.

I like Write.app. It’s available anywhere, on any browser, and has mobile apps for iOS and Android. You can write anything you like with Write.app, from simple notes, which are stored in note books for you on the Web, to full-length novels. Everything’s encrypted, so your notes stay private. You can make any note public, and can download your writing as a text file at any time.

If you click the full-screen icon, you’ll just see your text in a browser window, distraction-free.

Why the 4/5 score? I like to see a word count as I write, and this isn’t available in Write.app.

3. ZenPen (Web, free)

ZenPen

Distraction-free score – 5.

ZenPen is fun to use. It’s just a browser window. Delete the placeholder text – it’s a Help file – and write away. You can export to Markdown, HTML, and plain text. If you want to format, or add Markdown syntax, just highlight some text, and select from the options which pop up.

I was tempted to drop ZenPen’s score to 4 because of the lack of a word count. There’s a target word count, which you can enter, but which does nothing to let you know you’ve reached your word count goal. Maybe I missed something?

ZenPen’s gorgeous, uses Markdown, and you can use it in any browser; it gets 5 from me. :-)

Give these three writing apps a try if you’re feeling uninspired and need to write anyway. One of them may become your favorite.

If you’re a WordPress blogger, you’ve been waiting for 3.8 codenamed “Parker” with impatience. It’s finally here, right on time, and it’s gorgeous. Get the details of the changes here.

The first thing you’ll notice is that the new dashboard is sleeker. You can set the color scheme, choosing from eight styles when you first update to 3.8. If you want to change the admin color scheme after that, as I did, go to your profile page to change it.

Widgets under control: yippee!

With older versions of WordPress, widgets were a pain to manage and install. So much so, that whenever I thought of making changes, I avoided it, unless the change I wanted to make was absolutely essential. Dragging widgets to where you wanted them, even with a large monitor, was frustrating.

Now you can click on a widget, and a menu pops up, so you can add it to the widget area you want. Much more relaxing.

New theme: Twenty Fourteen, a magazine theme

The big benefit of using default WordPress themes? Fewer headaches. Over the years, I’ve used many commercial themes, and while some were wonderful, there were always headaches.

The holidays will be perfect for testing Twenty Fourteen for those of my blogging clients who want a good magazine theme.

So, what are you waiting for? WordPress 3.8 is here. Head for your blog’s dashboard, and install it. You’ll be enthralled. I can’t wait to explore and discover more of the changes to our beloved WordPress.

If you’re not yet a blogger, and are wondering how to get started, here you go: Blogging Maestro helps you to become a top blogger.